WWE's Cyber Sunday was a PPV that was quite ahead of its time, in the way it allowed fans to vote online to decide the matches. We saw three editions of the PPV between 2006 and 2008. WWE legend and current AEW commentator Jim Ross recently discussed the Cyber Sunday PPV on his podcast Grillin JR as well as the angle involving John Cena and Kevin Federline.
JR said the concept was sort of like a social media experiment before adding that he thought it was a good concept:
I think it was a social media experiment before its time. I think you’re spot-on about WWE evaluating how much of an impact that interaction could be on an experimental pay-per-view, if you will. As I said earlier, any time you can allow your audience to be a participant in some way above just a normal fan, I don’t think it’s a bad thing as a rule – it’s a good concept. H/T: 411Mania
Jim Ross on John Cena wrestling Kevin Federline
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The main event of WWE Cyber Sunday 2006 saw Booker T defending the World Heavyweight Championship against WWE Champion John Cena and ECW Champion Big Show. Booker T ended up winning the match after Kevin Federline (Britney Spears' ex-husband) got involved and cost him the match. This led to Federline facing Cena on the New Year's Day episode of RAW. Jim Ross gave his thoughts on the angle and revealed why he thought it was booked:
Not much, quite frankly. The K-Fed thing was set up for he and [John] Cena to have a match on New Year’s Day. RAW that year was on January 1 and we were in Miami……it wasn’t like calling Rock and Stone Cold, I’ll tell you that. My hats off to John Cena for going along with it, pulling it out of the bottom of the ninth type deal, making it something. I guess K-Fed did a little better than some of us perceived he might. The K-Fed dates and the target being January 1 – Vince’s idea was its counterprogramming. All the football is gonna be on and we’re gonna counterprogram it. I don’t know how the ratings were on January 1, but nonetheless, Vince’s idea was to counterprogram football with sports entertainment. H/T: 411Mania
Kevin Federline ended up shockingly beating John Cena on RAW after interference from the late Umaga.
You can listen to Jim Ross' podcast HERE.